Runaway and Homeless Youth Program: Fiscal Year (FY) 1997 Proposed Program Priorities

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families

[Proposed Program Priorities--ACF/ACYF/RHYP 97-1]

Runaway and Homeless Youth Program: Fiscal Year (FY) 1997

Proposed Program Priorities

AGENCY: Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB), Administration on

Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF), Administration for Children and

Families (ACF), HHS.

ACTION: Notice of request for public comments on proposed Fiscal Year

1997 Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) Program Priorities for the

following programs for runaway and homeless youth: Basic Center, Street

Outreach for Runaway and Homeless Youth and the Transitional Living

Program for Homeless Youth.

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The Runaway and Homeless Youth Act requires the Secretary to

publish annually, for public comment, a proposed plan specifying

priorities the Department will follow in awarding grants and contracts

under the Act. The final priorities selected will take into

consideration the comments and recommendations received from the public

in response to this notice.

The public, particularly those knowledgeable about and experienced

in providing services to runaway and homeless youth, are urged to

respond. The actual solicitations for grant applications will be

published at later dates in the Federal Register. No proposals, concept

papers or other form of application should be submitted at this time.

We welcome specific comments and suggestions on these proposed

program priorities.

DATES: The closing date for submission of public comments is February

3, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to: James A. Harrell, Deputy

Commissioner, Administration on Children, Youth and Families,

Attention: Family and Youth Services Bureau, P.O. Box 1182, Washington,

D.C. 20013.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Anita Wright, Youth Development

Program Specialist, (202) 205-8030.

SUMMARY: The Family and Youth Services Bureau of the Administration on

Children, Youth and Families announces that public comments are being

requested on proposed program priorities for Fiscal Year 1997 for the

following programs, prior to being announced in its final form: Runaway

and Homeless Youth Basic Center Grant Program (BCP): The purpose of the

Runaway and Homeless Youth Basic Center Grant Program is to provide

financial assistance to establish or strengthen locally-controlled

centers that address the immediate needs (e.g., outreach, temporary

shelter, counseling, and aftercare services) of runaway and homeless

youth and their families.

Street Outreach for Runaway and Homeless Youth: The purpose of the

Street Outreach Program is to provide street-based outreach and

education, including treatment, counseling, and information and

referral services for runaway, homeless, and street youth who have been

subjected to or are at risk of sexual abuse. Grants will be awarded for

street-based outreach and education and referral for runaway, homeless,

and street youth who have been subjected to or are at risk of being

subjected to sexual abuse.

Transitional Living Program for Homeless Youth (TLP): The purpose

of the Transitional Living Program for Homeless Youth is to support

projects which provide long term shelter, skill training and support

services in local communities to homeless youth to assist them in

making a smooth transition to self-sufficiency and to prevent long-term

dependency on social services.

Financial Assistance from the Family and Youth Services Bureau for

RHY programs is contingent upon the availability of funds. As indicated

in previous proposed priorities, the Department proposes to award

continuation funding to the National Communications System and to fund

a number of program support activities during Fiscal Year 1997.

Central to all FYSB programs and activities is a priority that

services be delivered with a comprehensive youth development approach.

Practicing youth workers are well aware that ``single-problem'' youth

are rare, and that interventions from many different perspectives, and

supports, including funding, from many different sources, are required

to effectively help adolescents.

Interventions from a developmental perspective view adolescence and

youth as the passage from the almost total dependence of the child into

the independence and self-sufficiency of the adult.

The various emotional, intellectual and physical changes, stages,

and growth spurts of the passage may be considered as the youth's

natural, healthy responses to the challenges and opportunities provided

by functional families, peers, neighborhoods, schools and churches.

The tasks of youth services providers are seen, thus, not as

correcting the ``pathologies'' of troubled youth, but rather as

providing for the successive developmental needs of maturing

individuals: The psychological need to develop a clear self-identity;

the sociological need to resolve disagreements through talking and

negotiating; the economic need to prepare for and enter into a career;

and the familial needs for sharing, for trusting, for giving love and

receiving

[[Page 67031]]

love, for commitment, and for all that establishing a family entails.

This developmental approach is fundamental to all of FYSB programs and

activities.

a. Basic Center Program Grants

Approximately 65 percent of the Basic Center grants awarded will be

non-competing continuation grants and approximately 35 percent will be

competitive new awards in Fiscal Year 1997.

Eligible applicants for new awards are current grantees with

project periods ending in Fiscal Year 1997 and otherwise eligible

applicants who are not current grantees. The applications will be

reviewed by State, and awards will be made during the last quarter of

Fiscal Year 1997 (July---September 1997).

Section 385(a)(2) of the Act requires that ninety percent of the

funds appropriated for Basic Center grants will be used to establish

and strengthen runaway and homeless youth Basic Centers.

b. Transitional Living Program Grants

All potential Fiscal Year 1997 TLP funds will be awarded in the

form of continuation grants and as new grants to applicants who

competed successfully during fiscal year 1996. Consideration will be

given to soliciting applications for competitive review in Fiscal Year

1997. However, grant awards to successful 1997 applicants will be made

during the first and second quarters of Fiscal Year 1998 using Fiscal

Year 1998 funds, if available.

c. Street Outreach for Runaway and Homeless Youth

The Domestic Violence/Violence Against Women Act of the 1994 Crime

Bill provides for education and prevention grants to reduce the sexual

abuse of runaway, homeless, and street youth. Fiscal Year 1997 funds

will be used to award new grants to eligible applicants. In addition,

non-competitive continuation awards will again be made to current basic

center grantees who competed successfully for a Street Outreach Program

grant in Fiscal Year 1996.

d. National Communications System

In Fiscal Year 1994, a five-year grant was awarded to the National

Runaway Switchboard, Inc., in Chicago, Illinois, to operate a National

Communications System to assist runaway and homeless youth in

communicating with their families and with service providers. Non-

competitive continuation funding will be awarded to the grantee in

Fiscal Year 1997.

e. Support Services for Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs

(1) Training and Technical Assistance

Part D, Section 342 of the Act authorizes the Department to make

grants to statewide and regional nonprofit organizations to provide

training and technical assistance (T&TA) to organizations receiving

service grants under the Act. The purpose of this T&TA is to strengthen

the programs and to enhance the knowledge and skills of youth service

workers.

The Family and Youth Services Bureau has ten Cooperative

Agreements, one in each of the ten Federal Regions, to provide T&TA to

agencies funded by FYSB to provide services to runaway and homeless

youth. Each Cooperative Agreement is unique, being based on the

characteristics and different T&TA needs in the respective Region. Each

has a five-year project period that will end in Fiscal Year 1999. Non-

competitive continuation funding will be awarded to the ten T&TA

grantees in Fiscal Year 1997.

(2) National Clearinghouse on Runaway and Homeless Youth

The Family and Youth Services Bureau supports a National

Clearinghouse on Youth and Families (NCFY). The purpose of the

clearinghouse is to disseminate information to professionals and

agencies involved in youth development efforts and/or the delivery of

direct services to runaway, homeless and at-risk youth. The

Clearinghouse collects, maintains and disseminates reports and other

materials, identifies areas in which new or additional information is

needed, and carries out other activities designed to provide the field

with the information needed to improve services to runaway and homeless

youth.

The contract with the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth

expires this fiscal year. A Request for Proposals will be published and

a new five year contract will be awarded this fiscal year to sustain

the National Clearinghouse for Runaway and Homeless Youth.

(3) Runaway and Homeless Youth Management Information System (RHYMIS)

The Family and Youth Services Bureau awarded a contract, which

expires this fiscal year, for the development and implementation of a

Runaway and Homeless Youth Management Information System (RHYMIS) for

FYSB programs. The data generated by the system are used to produce

reports and information regarding FYSB's programs, including

information for required reports to Congress. The RHYMIS also serves as

a management tool for FYSB and for the individual programs.

In Fiscal Year 1997 a procurement for this activity will be

published and a new contract awarded.

(4) Monitoring Support for FYSB Programs

The Family and Youth Services Bureau uses a standardized,

comprehensive monitoring instrument and site visit protocols, including

a peer-review component for monitoring runaway and homeless youth

programs. The Family and Youth Services Bureau has a contractual

agreement, which expires this fiscal year, to provide logistical

support for the peer review monitoring process, including nationwide

distribution of the monitoring instrument. The findings from the

monitoring visits have been used by the Regional Offices and the T&TA

providers as a basis for their activities. In Fiscal Year 1997 a

procurement for this activity will be published and a new contract

awarded.

f. Research and Demonstration Initiatives

Section 315 of the Act authorizes the Department to make grants to

States, localities, and private entities to carry out research,

demonstration, and service projects designed to increase knowledge

concerning and to improve services for runaway and homeless youth.

These activities serve to identify emerging issues and to develop and

test models which address such issues.

(1) Services for Youth With Developmental Disabilities

The Family and Youth Services Bureau and the Administration on

Development Disabilities are collaborating to address the needs of

youth with developmental disabilities. In 1995, a competitive review

process resulted in jointly funded grant awards to three projects

designed to improve local coordination of services to youth with

developmental disabilities. Non-competitive continuation funding will

be awarded to these grantees in Fiscal Year 1997.

(2) Analysis, Synthesis, and Interpretation of New Information

Concerning Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs

Over the past few years, considerable new knowledge and information

has been developed concerning the runaway and homeless youth programs

[[Page 67032]]

administered by FYSB, and the youth and families served. The main

sources of this new information are the Runaway and Homeless Youth

Management Information System (RHYMIS), the results of RHY monitoring

visits, and a number of evaluation studies underway or recently

completed. The RHYMIS, monitoring reports, and the evaluation studies

contain descriptions of FYSB's grantee agencies, along with detailed

data on the youth and families served.

A contract was awarded in Fiscal Year 1995 to analyze and

synthesize this valuable data and to explore program and policy

implications. Results from this effort will be available in Fiscal Year

1997.

(3) Youth Development Framework

In Fiscal Year 1995 a contract was awarded to develop a youth

development framework from a theoretical perspective. This framework

will be designed to enhance the capacity of policy and program

developers, program managers, and youth services professionals to

develop service models and approaches that will redirect youth in high

risk situations toward positive pathways of development.

It is our expectation that this document will serve as a basis for

securing consensus on a working definition of youth development and for

increasing awareness of the importance and benefits of a youth

development perspective in serving youth. The report from this contract

will be available in Fiscal Year 1997.

(4) Performance Based Outcomes for Youth Services

Much of the data gathering and assessment tools currently used by

the Family and Youth Services Bureau are process oriented. Beginning in

Fiscal Year 1997, FYSB will explore the feasibility of developing youth

development performance based indicators and/or outcome measures as an

alternative method to evaluating the effectiveness of youth services.

Such a method would add an important dimension to FYSB's program

monitoring and information gathering efforts and would, in addition, be

useful to local youth service grantees.

g. Collaboration with State Units of Government

Establishing and/or maintaining effective local youth service

delivery systems is increasingly contingent upon successful

collaborations between federal government agencies, state governments

and local community based organizations.

During Fiscal Year 1997 FYSB will begin a process in which FYSB and

States engage in conversations about youth development, identify

concerns and issues regarding youth services, provide expert

information and assistance to each other, and encourage and foster

State relationships with community based organizations that serve

youth. This process might evolve to include FYSB/State partnerships

and/or pilot efforts which also include local youth service providers.

h. Priorities for Administrative Changes

To support the increased emphasis on youth development, a number of

management or administrative changes will be continued:

The Regional Offices have and will continue to play a

significant role in the assessment of grant applications. This role

includes Regional staff involvement (1) as chairpersons for peer review

panels held in Washington, D.C., and (2) in conduct of administrative

reviews of new start applications. This level of regional office

involvement will continue in fiscal year 1997.

The Administration on Children and Families (ACF) will

again change the deadline for receipt of a Runaway and Homeless Youth

grant application from the postal date of the application to the actual

receipt date of the application by ACF. Applicants should carefully

examine information on receipt dates in Fiscal Year 1997 Federal

Register announcements to assure that they meet deadlines in the manner

prescribed.

Efforts will be continued to avoid the problems of gaps in

financial support between the expiration of one grant and the beginning

of a new grant for current grantees that are successful in competition.

We welcome specific comments and suggestions on these proposed

program priorities.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 93.623, Runaway and

Homeless Youth Program; Number 93.657, Transitional Living Program

for Homeless Youth; and Number 93.557, Street Outreach for Runaway

and Homeless Youth)

Dated: December 12, 1996.

James A. Harrell,

Deputy Commissioner,Administration on Children, Youth and Families.

[FR Doc. 96-32184 Filed 12-18-96; 8:45 am]

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